The project supports the growth initiatives of the 162-year-old bank, which has expanded and diversified its business activities to become one of Switzerland’s largest banking institutions. The agreement allows the bank to concentrate on its core competencies of retail and institutional banking while benefiting from IBM’s leadership in banking application consulting and hosting.

In terms of the agreement, the business of BCV’s IT services provider, Unicible, and Unicible’s resources will transfer to IBM. Unicible is the largest banking solution IT provider in Suisse romande, and the transfer includes about 330 staff. IBM will establish an IT Banking Competence Centre in Lausanne, focusing on banking applications consulting and banking application hosting. The aim is to transfer Unicible from a captive and proprietary service provider to a multi-platform banking competence centre in Lausanne. In future, the centre will provide technology services, consulting services and managed business services to banking groups in addition to BCV.

Alexandre Zeller, CEO BCV, said: “With IBM as a partner we can focus on our core activities and offer the best possible services to our clients.”

The contract is one of IBM Switzerland’s largest ever services agreements and further strengthens IBM’s position as a leader in the Swiss banking sector.

“With this agreement we are able to help BCV offer better service to their customers and help them focus on their success,” said Daniel Ruethemann, Country General Manager, IBM Switzerland. “With the new IT Banking Competence Centre, IBM will provide best-in-class technology, consulting and managed business services to BCV and other retail and private banks.”